What do we know about the Twelve and their cults?

[LineageRazor]

I'm not sure it's fair to refer to them as "cults" - at least, unless you're the sort that maintains that ANY religion is a cult, and the established religions are just cults that have gone mainstream. Worship of the Twelve is perfectly acceptable in Eorzea, even expected, to a degree - whereas true cults, like the Lambs of Dalamud, are looked upon as delusional and (justifiably) dangerous fanatics.

In-game, however, I think that Ishgard's worship of Halone is the only case whose worship is gone into in with any depth, and appears to be patterned after Catholicism (specifically, medieval, Inquisition-era Catholicism). It's worth noting, however, that worshipers of Halone never downplayed any of the other Eleven as being "false gods" - while Halone is the center of their worship, the others are no less godly than she. Even Nophica, Halone's bitter rival, is never singled out as being unworthy of worship. Also worth noting, it may well be the case that non-Ishgardian worshipers of Halone do not subscribe to Ishgard's church, but worship her in their own way.

It's also risky to generalize that Au Ra do not worship the Twelve. The Twelve are worshiped in Eorzea, and while most Au Ra do not live in Eorzea, the few that are born and bred there probably DO. Worship of the Twelve is a regional and cultural thing, not a racial thing.

[IlSire]

I'm not sure it's fair to refer to them as "cults" - at least, unless you're the sort that maintains that ANY religion is a cult, and the established religions are just cults that have gone mainstream. Worship of the Twelve is perfectly acceptable in Eorzea, even expected, to a degree - whereas true cults, like the Lambs of Dalamud, are looked upon as delusional and (justifiably) dangerous fanatics.

I used "cult" but I agree that "religion" or just "worship" would be better terms, it's just that the word "cult" doesn't have the exact same connotations it has in English and can be used as a synonym in my mother language, sorry.

It's also risky to generalize that Au Ra do not worship the Twelve. The Twelve are worshiped in Eorzea, and while most Au Ra do not live in Eorzea, the few that are born and bred there probably DO. Worship of the Twelve is a regional and cultural thing, not a racial thing.

I agree that it's totally possible with Eorzean Au Ra but I was referring mostly about what traditionally happens where the greatest bulk of the race resides, which in this case is in Othard and for Viera and Hrothgar would be Golmore Jungle, Skatay Range and Ilsabard I guess.

It's worth pointing out that the Second Astral Era was very religious, until those theocracies collapsed in the Third Calamity and broke the power of organized religion; that's what made the Allagans rather atheistic. The faith of the Twelve is apparently at least as old as Allag, and so was probably shaped by those events.

Oh yes, I remember that passage from the lorebook, would be nice to know more indeed.

We don't really know. For all the talk about the Twelve there's very little evidence of things like clergy or formal worship for most of them (outside of Ishagrd, anyway.) We see people talk about them and invoke them in oaths or the heat of the moment (by the Twelve!), and there are shines dedicated to them, and an occasional priest, but that's the extent of it shown in game. Outside of Ishagrd, prayer and worship seem to be more personal than organized.

It's a shame we don't know much, even if there is no formal highly organized religion it would be good to know how the various people in Eorzea intertwine their worship in their lives especially for those groups that traditionally do it, like Keepers of the Moon and Menphina, Seekers of the Sun and Azeyma and so on.

[Seraph522]

I'm not sure it's fair to refer to them as "cults" - at least, unless you're the sort that maintains that ANY religion is a cult, and the established religions are just cults that have gone mainstream. Worship of the Twelve is perfectly acceptable in Eorzea, even expected, to a degree - whereas true cults, like the Lambs of Dalamud, are looked upon as delusional and (justifiably) dangerous fanatics.

I used "cult" but I agree that "religion" or just "worship" would be better terms, it's just that the word "cult" doesn't have the exact same connotations it has in English and can be used as a synonym in my mother language, sorry.

In fairness, the term 'cult' can also be used in English simply to refer to a particular sect of faith devoted to a particular god or goddess, and doesn't necessarily have the same negative connotations; this term is used often in academia, for example, when speaking about polytheistic religions (i.e. the Imperial Cult in the Roman Empire which worshiped emperors as deities after their deaths). This definition would fit perfectly for what you described. The problem mostly arises with its popular usage, which is negative in tone and usually refers to the aforementioned insular and fanatical religious groups; that's probably where the confusion is coming from.